NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH YAR'ADUA ON

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 ABUJA 001347 SIPDIS FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF/W, AND EB PASS TO NSC PITTMAN E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/14/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON EFIN EINV MASS MARR NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH YAR'ADUA ON NIGER DELTA, EFCC, RESHUFFLE REF: STATE 70257 Classified By: Ambassador Robin R. Sanders for reasons 1.4. (b & d). 1.(S) Summary: On the eve of President Yar'Adua's departure for his state visit to the United Kingdom, the Ambassador was granted an hour meeting on July 14, where she executed reftel demarche points and took the occasion to ask about his plans for a reshuffle and movement on the proposed U.S.-GON bilateral investment treaty. The key points of his responses to the demarche were: -- Niger Delta (ND) - Strong need to address both supply and demand side of oil bunkering and wishes to step up military efforts against bunkering and wipe out the militant camps. He wants to find some international mechanism to address both sides of the problem, and has called Niger Delta governors on the carpet about their complicity with militants, and Delta politicians on their complicity with criminal elements. If the governors do not get a handle on the situation and establish law and order, he stressed, he will declare "emergencies" in their states allowing for a greater federal government role in re-establishing law and order. -- Niger Delta Summit - Agreed that the Summit and the Gambari issue had been badly handled and said that Gambari would not have resigned if he were in the country at the time (Yar'Adua was at the G-8 Summit). He will be meeting Gambari in London (as a sidebar to his July 15-17 UK State Visit) to discuss what could be salvaged as he still believed that Gambari had the best skill sets to see the Summit process through. In the meantime, the Summit will be on hold until he can fully assess the damage done by the VP's debacle, noting that he had told the Vice President to stop saying that the Delta was a domestic issue as this was no longer the case. -- Military Complicity in Niger Delta Bunkering - He said he will remove by the end of the week (or right after London trip) the Chiefs of Defense and Navy operations in order to send a signal to the military that he is serious about ending complicity by anyone in his government in oil bunkering. -- Mixed Messages on Niger Delta -- In response to Ambassador,s points that there are not only mixed messages on who really has the lead on Niger Delta issues, but a lack of response from the GON to the USG and others on offers of assistance, Yar'Adua promised to appoint a special assistant that USG and others key partners can work with to improve coordination, and communication, reassuring partners that their messages are reaching him. He committed to send us back a formal response on our training/equipment offers as well as the reftel reimbursable items. Ambassador noted that the US and UK were working together to help him finds ways to address all these pressing issues. -- Cabinet Reshuffle - Nigerian President said he was not planning a reshuffle, but does plan in the near future to move a few ministers around and or out of government. -- EFCC - In response to reftel points, Yar'Adua said the international community needs to give Waziri a chance, but as of now he believes she is doing a good job. Ambassador noted concern on redeployments of some 40-60 previously USG, UK and UN trained individuals that could gut the agency. He took this on board and said he would check on this and understood international community concerns if trained investigators were being redeployed, but that we need to see how the new EFCC chief performs. To the consternation of his staff, Ambassador squeezed in an hour with the Nigerian Head of State. He was frank, as he always has been, and clearly was annoyed at the lack of capacity in his government not only on follow through, but of the sheer incompetence in certain sectors. He had no qualms in admitting the complicity of the military, Delta governors, and others in oil bunkering and wants to send a ABUJA 00001347 002 OF 004 strong signal by changing the leadership of some of his service chiefs. Unfortunately for General Ward's visit, despite efforts, he thinks it is better to keep Ward's visit within the context of the African Endeavor exercise and have his ministers meet with him (Post has already secured meetings with Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs). We would like to get through the upcoming African Endeavor exercise with the CHOD before he gets moved, if Yar'Adua follows through on what he shared in the meeting. End Summary. -------------- -------------- Niger Delta Overall Issues: The Summit, Oil Bunkering -------------- -------------- ¶2. (S) Ambassador called on Nigerian President Yar'Adua for one hour on July 14 on the eve of his departure for his State Visit to the United Kingdom to carryout reftel demarche (FYI: demarche also conducted July 11 with Foreign Minister Maduekwe in case the Yar'Adua meeting fell after the UK State visit. See septel). Ambassador began with the strong need for Nigeria to reframe the public policy strategy on Niger Delta (ND) from a purely domestic issue to a "domestic issue with international implications". She noted the concern about the capacity of Nigeria, without its friends, to promote not only a peaceful resolution to the issues, but also better advance development and transparency. Ambassador then reviewed what had been offered to the GON to date to assist on ND issues as well as other potential reimbursable opportunities as outlined in the demarche. She went into further detail noting that his military needs the proper equipment(proper boats, planes, etc),assets, and spare parts for both the navy and air force in order to better utilize the training the USG has provided to date, including the sensors we have installed to assist with monitoring the coastline 100 nautical miles out. In response, Yar'Adua agreed that his government needed to reframe the issue as the problems in the ND region had a larger impact than just in the region. He added that he was very focused on next steps, was frustrated that the Niger Delta Summit had turned into such a mess, and was planning to talk to Gambari in London. He lamented that he was not in-country and had no opportunity to talk to Gambari prior to him making a decision to resign last week; he would talk to Gambari in London to see what could be salvaged. Ambassador passed on Gambari's message, sharing with the Nigerian President the former's desire to still work behind the scenes if Yar'Adua saw this as helpful. In Yar'Adua's view the concurrent steps to take wereto go in and wipe out the camps in the Delta creeks, while at the same time putting the governors, politicians and the military on notice that he expects results. On the political side, he said he called in the governors from the key ND states on July 12, and told them he wanted their complicity with the militants to cease and for them to take more responsibility for the law and order in their states; if not, he would declare "emergencies" in their states, so that the Federal Government could step in. He said this "struck fear and rattled" many of them as they do not want to have their executive powers diminished so he expected to see results. Yar'Adua also added that he had called in key Delta politicians over the weekend as well, and ordered them to stop arming and paying youth gangs which have now become criminal elements in the region. He believed that his edict to the governors on improving law and order would also help get the politicians to fall in line. (Note: Upon Ambassador's departure from Yar'Adua's private office, the VP was waiting as was the Governor of Bayelsa to see the President on ND issues). ¶3. (S) Ambassador then turned to the hard issues of oil bunkering, military complicity, and what his vision was to address these challenges; she also shared the electronic bill of laden document forwarded by Washington. On oil bunkering Yar'Adua said that there had to be some international framework to address both the supply and demand sides of the equation and he had read documents on Kimberly and other processes as possible examples from which to draw. Ambassador noted our concern with a Kimberly-like process and highlighted the electronic bill of laden option. He said he would review the document, but at first glance saw it as being part of a larger international framework, which ABUJA 00001347 003 OF 004 would also include assistance on arresting those involved, and "signaturing" Nigeria's oil (which is his wording for fingerprinting). On the supply and security side, he wanted illegal ships found and destroyed in order to send a strong signal to countries and buyers receiving illegal oil that bunkering would no longer be tolerated. He saw a role for the international community in helping with aerial surveillance. Ambassador reiterated that we could help in identifying contractors to assist in this area, and also help with training as per demarche. ¶4. (S) Ambassador raised the problem with getting his government to respond to offers as well the mixed signals as to who the international community can work with on Niger Delta issues. She noted that it was important to have access to him to ensure that messages and offers are getting addressed, adding that many of the things that were being highlighted today had been offered in some form or another to the GON, but with little-to-no response. Yar'Adua took this on board and offered on the spot to appoint a special advisor on ND issues that would "report directly" to him and with whom international friends, such as the U.S., could engage to offer assistance, suggestions, and dialogue. Ambassador noted that this was a good start, and then turned to the complicity issue of the military in bunkering. The Nigerian President said he was aware of the problem and said he had plans already to change some of his service chiefs as he had "evidence" that some were either "involved or turned a blind eye, and he wanted this to stop." With out hesitation, he told the Ambassador that he was specifically looking at removing the Chiefs of Navy Staff and Defense because "even if they were not directly involved, it is under their leadership that this is happening." Yar'Adua added that he had plans to remove them upon his return from London, if not before (he departs on July 15 for London) as this would send a key signal to those in the rank and file that any role in oil bunkering will not be tolerated. Ambassador noted that the USG was working very closely with the UK as we were like-minded on a number of things regarding the Niger Delta and his leadership on some of these key issues would be important for him to also share in London. ¶5. (S) As for stakeholders who have concerns about the Niger Delta, Yar'Adua was less clear on how to map this out and had expected the VP's office to have done a lot more. He opined that a real assessment needed to be done so that the next time a Summit is announced everyone is at least on board with having a Summit. On the development side of the equation, Ambassador highlighted possible reimbursable technical assistance to NNPC and NDDC, and the need for more transparency on how they are using and spending resources. Yar'Adua agreed and said this too is also something he would welcome. He suggested that the Ambassador wait until he has appointed a special assistant to coordinate these offers so that there can be real, tangible and practical results. -------------- EFCC: -------------- ¶6. (S) Ambassador reviewed demarche points with the Nigerian President on EFCC. He was not expansive as he said he had reviewed what he had thought about this issue and Ribadu in the past with the Ambassador in detail. However, what he did offer was that in "his view the international community needed to give the new EFCC chairwoman a chance to do her job." He added that he thought Mrs. Waziri had made a good start and was doing what he wanted by de-politicizing the EFCC. Ambassador noted concerns about the mass redeployments of previously Western trained (USG, UK, UN) investigators who had been handling big cases, and that with such an exodus, the EFCC was losing capacity. Yar'Adua agreed this could be a problem, and said he would keep an eye on it overall as he did not want the EFCC's capacity diminished, but in principle he restated, he thought Mrs. Waziri was doing a good job at the start and he would be watching closely what happens at the Commission. ABUJA 00001347 004 OF 004 -------------- Reshuffle, BIT: -------------- ¶7. (S) Upon departing, Ambassador asked the President whether he still considering reshuffling his government. Yar'Adua said he did not see his plans as a reshuffle but would institute a few changes, moving certain ministers to different portfolios, and removing others, but as of yet he had not worked out all his timing. On the BIT, Ambassador told the Nigerian President that we understood that the bilateral investment treaty had been returned to the Villa for approval and that we were keen to move this along as the lack of such an agreement continued to stymie good trade and investment between the U.S. and Nigeria. Yar'Adua said it was the first he was hearing that the BIT had been returned to his offices, and he would follow-up to see where it stood. Ambassador left a copy of the principle demarche points with the President. SANDERS